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Red Dragon
Red Dragon is a novel by Thomas Harris and the first novel in the Hannibal Lecter series of novels. It was adapted into two films, one of which was titled the same name, and one of which had been titled Manhunter. Novel In 1978, a serial killer popularly nicknamed the Tooth Fairy stalks and murders seemingly random families during sequential full moons. He kills the Jacobi family in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday June 28 and the Leeds family in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 26. Two days after the latter murder, Special Agent Jack Crawford seeks out his protégé, Will Graham, a brilliant profiler who was the agent who actually captured Hannibal Lecter three years earlier, but retired after Lecter almost killed him. Crawford goes to Sugarloaf Key and pleads with Graham for his assistance, and Graham reluctantly agrees. After checking over the crime scenes, with only minimal insight, he realizes that he must once again visit Lecter and seek his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy is actually a disturbed man named Francis Dolarhyde who calls himself The Great Red Dragon because of his obsession with the William Blake painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun". Dolarhyde is unable to control his violent, sexual urges, and believes that murdering people (or "changing" them, as he calls it) allows him to more fully "become" an alternate personality he calls "The Great Red Dragon". Flashbacks reveal that his pathology is born from the systematic abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his sadistic grandmother. Graham continues to run into complications, the first being Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter who follows Graham relentlessly for leads on the Tooth Fairy story. Further complicating the investigation is the secret correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde, where Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, endangering Graham's wife and stepson, who are evacuated to a remote farm which belongs to Crawford's brother. Graham discovers the secret communication and tries to intercept it without Lecter's knowledge, but the doctor is quick to realize that the Feds are onto him, and humiliates the authorities by upping the stakes: in return for his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, he requests a first-class meal in his cell and having his library privileges returned. Hoping to lure the Tooth Fairy into a trap, Graham gives Lounds an interview in which he characterizes the killer as an impotent homosexual. This provokes Dolarhyde, who kidnaps Lounds, forces him to recant his allegations, sets him on fire, leaving his maimed body outside his newspaper's offices; Lounds eventually dies. At about the same time, Dolarhyde falls in love with a blind co-worker named Reba McClane, which conflicts with his homicidal urges. After beginning a relationship with Reba, Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him; he goes to the Brooklyn Museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolor of The Red Dragon. Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home movies, which he only could have seen if he worked for the film processing lab that developed them. Dolarhyde's job gives him access to all home movies that pass through the company. When he sees Graham interviewing his boss, Dolarhyde realizes that they are on to him and goes to see Reba one last time. He finds her talking to a co-worker, Ralph Mandy, a man whom she actually dislikes. Believing that Reba is being unfaithful, Dolarhyde kills Mandy, kidnaps Reba and, having taken her to his house, sets the place on fire. He intends to kill her and then himself, but finds himself unable to shoot her. After Dolarhyde apparently shoots himself, Reba escapes. Graham later comforts her, telling her that there is nothing wrong with her, and that the kindness and affection she showed Dolarhyde probably saved lives. However, it turns out Dolarhyde did not shoot himself but left behind the body of Arnold Lang, a gas station attendant, in order to stage his own death. Dolarhyde then surprises Graham at his Florida home, where he proceeds to stab Graham in the face, permanently disfiguring him. Graham's wife, Molly, then fatally shoots Dolarhyde. After recovering, Graham receives a letter from Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't "very ugly". However, Crawford intercepts the letter and destroys it. It is implied that Molly's feelings toward Graham have changed, but the state of their relationship is not made clear. Graham has a flashback to a visit he made to Shiloh, the site of a major battle in the U.S. Civil War, shortly after apprehending (and in the process killing) Garrett Jacob Hobbs, a serial killer he investigated before he met Lecter. Film adaptations Manhunter The first film, released in 1986 under the title Manhunter, was written and directed by Michael Mann and focused on FBI Special Agent Will Graham, played by William Petersen. Lecter (renamed Lecktor) was played by Brian Cox. Red Dragon The second film, which used the title Red Dragon, appeared in 2002. Directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally (who also wrote the screenplay for The Silence of the Lambs), it starred Edward Norton as Graham and Anthony Hopkins as Lecter. Category:Red Dragon Category:Novels and films